Many people wonder what happens during a typical day at preschool. Are the children “just playing”? The answer is yes and no.
Our curriculum is based on the belief that children are children, not little adults. Learning is a process that unfolds as children interact with their environment. Children have the opportunity to test their theories, learn social norms, and develop various learning modalities in a safe and meaningful way. They construct meaning about the world as their understanding grows with each experiment.
As we enter the Early Childhood classroom we see children engaged in a variety of activities that form the foundation for later learning. Children pouring sand from one container to the next gain experience with volume. Block building can be an introduction to geometry as well as physics, as children construct ramps to race their toy cars. The dramatic play area may become a restaurant where children practice emerging writing skills by taking orders from “the customer.” Teachers can provoke children’s imagination by introducing abstract materials into different learning centers; this is an early step in growing through concrete reasoning into symbolic representation.
It’s important to remember that learning is a process. We can provide an environment that supports children’s innate curiosity and drive to learn. And we can have fun doing it.
